The hotel we are staying in is lovely, especially as we are in a “junior suite” which has a separate lounge as well as the bedroom. We weren’t supposed to be in a suite but swapped with the mother-in-law so that she could have the bath that the standard room we had paid for offered. Result! When it comes to hotels we are, to be honest, cheapskates. We regard it as somewhere to sleep and so given we spend so little time there it doesn’t have to be that posh, just clean and tidy.
Similarly we won’t overpay for breakfast. The current hotel want €16 per person and there is no way I’ll ever eat that much. So we tend to wander out and find a local cafe and have a coffee and a croissant there. This is what we did today and ended up paying about €3.5 each for what was billed as coffee with croissant and marmalade. Seville is, of course, famous for its oranges and marmalade is made of said oranges. So it came as a surprise when the marmalade turned out to be jam! I suspect that this is because the Spanish for jam is mermelada.
Anyway, despite not having had my marmalade, we still went out to visit the Real Alcázar de Sevilla. The Alcázar is to Seville what the Alhambra is to Granada – a royal place left by the Moors. Unlike the castles left in England by the Normans which were boxy affairs the palaces left by the Moors are intricately detailed places with fascinating geometric designs (some shown below). It must have taken decades to achieve the quality of workmanship on display.
What appeals to me most is that sense of order and regularity. Everything seems to be in place and is aligned symmetrically with clean lines. I have always had a fascination with repeating patterns and it is still my favourite boring meeting doodle involving different sized boxes radiating out.
We wandered through the palace and the gardens before heading out and towards the Plaza de España built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. We approached it from the back and from that side it was pretty uninspiring but there was a real wow factor from the front. There is an ornate building in a U shape with the plaza in front of it which also has a small canal on which you can row. It was very attractive but it did also remind me of the front of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas so make of that what you will!
Today was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday and the reason for making this trip. In celebration of that we had booked to go for a special meal at a restaurant that bills itself as the oldest in Seville (they are clearly proud of this fact as the Est. 1670 is printed on everything). So it is fair to say that they have had plenty of time to get the experience just right.
I knew before we arrived that the place was going to be quirky. It is basically a bar with a couple of small rooms at the back sat out as a restaurant. If you are at the bar area you can only stand but you can have tapas. The rooms, such that they were, at the back are seated but there is a more traditional menu. We arrived and it was packed, always a good sign that somewhere is popular. We had difficultly attracting someones attention to get our table but finally tracked it down and seated ourselves.
Menus were provided in a number of languages so this made it relatively straight forward for us to be able to choose a starter and main course each. When the old fella that was to be waiter for the evening finally deigned to take our order it was quickly obvious that we were to be an inconvenience to him. When one of our party couldn’t find again the in the menu with the item he wanted the waiter let out a very audible sigh and rolled his eyes!
When the food started to arrive it came in dribs and drabs rather than all at once. So first the quick and easy cold cuts came. Fair enough we thought, next must be the rest of the hot starters. This was confirmed in our minds when next arrived a soup. At this point there seemed little point in wait so those that had their starters started. While we were not more that a few bites into these than the main courses began to appear (and far too quickly to have been cooked from fresh I felt). This led to some interesting juggling of plates as the table wasn’t big enough to accommodate all that had been ordered. Finally all the main courses had arrived but we were still short of one starter – mine of course. This finally arrived pretty much as I was half way through my main.
It should be said that the food was very good even if it did arrive in a peculiar order. Had we been having tapas it might not have been a surprise but given the menu was laid out into starters and main it was very odd. We got the bill and went to pay by card. The waiter arrived with the card machine and no sooner had he done so but another waiter came over and sent him away so off he went without a word but another obvious huff. We were left with no idea what had happened and had to wait another five minutes before he arrived back again and finally took payment.
All in all it was an entertaining meal!
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